(Suspension bridge. Trough Creek State Park, PA. December 2007. © Robin)
Every year that I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence which will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well.
~ Mary Cholomondeley
When it comes to hiking, I’d just as soon bypass the suspension bridges, the kind usually put together with ropes or, in the case of the one above, linked iron bars and metal chains. I always think of them as swinging bridges because that’s what they do when you’re walking across them.
While out on one of the short hikes we took during my birthday trip, I stalled for a while using photography as an excuse to avoid crossing this bridge. The surface was a little slick from snow and ice, and I could clearly see the bridge doing it’s bounce and swing thing as M crossed it. I thought about not crossing it at all.
But with M waiting on the other side, I decided to put one foot in front of the other and go for it. Once across I started to think about how I’d have to cross the bridge again to get back. I was about to go into a small panic until I realized that thinking ahead that way would spoil the journey I had just made as well as the one I was currently involved in. So I set aside all thoughts of the future crossing as I continued on, enjoying where I was in each moment as it came.
As for crossing the bridge again, it wasn’t nearly as hard the second time. In fact, it was almost fun.
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